Sunday, July 31, 2011

More Tales of the Ouija Board

Author’s note: After last week’s story of a Ouija board encounter gone wrong, a “From the Shadows” reader contacted me with a story of his own.

Kindred walked into his older sister’s house one weekend night in January 1979, his senior year in high school, to find his sister, her boyfriend, and a few cousins around the kitchen table, some sitting, others standing.

He had no idea what the night would bring.

“All (cousins) were female, all in their early and late teens,” he said. “No real significance, although I now wonder if an overwhelming female presence influenced events that followed.”

Kindred’s cousin Dianne waved him toward the table.

“Check this out,” she said.

As Kindred stepped to the table, he saw something that sent fear through him.

“I was taken a little aback,” he said. “Coming from a Christian background we were all told not to mess with Ouija boards.”

But they were, and Kindred joined the game.

“Are you dead or alive,” someone asked, the plastic, triangular planchette skittering across the board. The group asked the question again and again as the planchette indicated a different spirit had joined the conversation.

“It would go to each letter, stop at each letter, and spell out ‘dead’ or ‘alive,’” Kindred said.

Cousin accused cousin of moving the planchette, but everyone denied it. The group would soon find no one in the room – no one living – had moved the triangle.

“A whimsical remark angered whatever was there and one leg of the widget caught on the end of the board,” Kindred said. “Everyone lifted their fingers off the widget and (it) quickly moved across the table top.”

Although frightened, no one wanted to stop the session.

“Curiosity had gotten the best of us all that night,” Kindred said.

Simple yes or no questions made way for more complex queries, like “what are you?”

“We would get answers back such as rabbits, cows, snakes and people we knew that said they were asleep but communicating with us,” he said.

Then whatever communicated with them began to get too close.

“One upsetting moment when going through the list of questions, it said it was by the cliff,” a landmark on the property, Kindred said. “Then by our corrals, then crossing the creek. The procession was towards us – and fast. Finally it said it was outside in the yard, wanting to come in.”

As the group hovered over the board wondering what to do, someone stood, peeled back the kitchen curtain and looked outside. A dog stood in the yard, staring at the house. It was Kindred’s parent’s dog Choco, who would have had to cross those landmarks to reach the house.

“That was pretty freaky,” Kindred said.

Fueled by tension, imagination and adrenaline, the group continued to work the board – then something happened.

The board randomly spelled out “purple,” which confused everyone in the room. But when the board spelled “Newtown ND” and “Samantha,” Kindred realized the board targeted him. An ex-girlfriend named Samantha he’d always associated with the color purple lived in Newtown, N.D.

“It was all very startling to me,” Kindred said. “It was as if this universal conscience or entity somehow focused on me and brought up knowledge only I knew, and these were things that were not on my mind at all, at the time.”

The most disturbing event while the group sat in that kitchen, watching the plastic planchette skitter from letter to letter by its own power, didn’t occur in that house.

“While we used the board, my cousin’s mother kept getting phone calls from a little boy claiming he was her abandoned son,” Kindred said.

The voice told her he was calling from a pay phone from nearby Lander, Wyo., and wanted her to pick him up at the 7-11 there.

“Of course, she was clueless and took it as prank calls,” Kindred said. “She would know if she had a baby and had abandoned it anywhere.”

As soon as she hung up the telephone, the little boy would call back – then the “prank” turned into horror.

“The most terrifying thing for her was on the last of these several calls when the little boy’s voice morphed into a man’s voice as he was talking to her,” Kindred said. “Very, very, creepy.”

Although the telephone calls stopped after that, and the group put up the board and everyone went home for the night, the Ouija board experience has stayed with Kindred for 32 years.

“I do not encourage any one to experiment with a Ouija board,” Kindred said. “That night was the only and last night any of us ever engaged in (one).”

Got a scary story? Ever played with a Ouija board, heard voices, seen a ghost, UFO or a creature you couldn’t identify? Let Jason know about it: Jason Offutt, P.O. Box 501, Maryville, Mo., 64468, or jasonoffutt@hotmail.com. Your story might make an upcoming installment of “From the Shadows.”

Jason’s newest book on the paranormal, “Paranormal Missouri: Show Me Your Monsters,” is available at Jason’s blog, from-the-shadows.blogspot.com.

6 comments:

I thought the story was interesting although somewhat incoherent. Why was the ex-girlfriend brought up during the session? This doesn't contribute anything to the story because it doesn't say anything else. It was just thrown in there.

It doesn't say what the man's voice said. There could be several reasons for that "little boy" calling. If the woman had an abortion, that could be one. Or it could have been just an evil spirit setting up an encounter to hurt her (if she had gone she would have been in the wrong place at the wrong time kinda thing).

Here again; a bunch of teenagers treating the board as a game; yeah, bad crap is going to happen. It's NOT a game. Before Parker Brothers came out with "Ouija", it was known for centuries as the Talking Board. It is a known means of communicating with the other side. But without proper care and preparation taken, it only attracts lower entities, who see a chance to have fun at the expense of the living.

With care and proper preparation, the Board is a very useful device. But it is NOT a game. treating it as such, is what contributes to these frightening stories.

My best friends mother was addicted to the Ouija board for 30 years. She would not make a major decision without consulting her spirit friend "Frank". She even began to seek answers to mundane questions, and the spirit seemed benevolent until she ignored it and it began to threaten her. She gave it to my friend (a church elder) who tried to burn it in a burning barrel with other garbage. But it would not burn. even when drenched in gasoline.

My best friends mother was addicted to the Ouija board for 30 years. She would not make a major decision without consulting her spirit friend "Frank". She even began to seek answers to mundane questions, and the spirit seemed benevolent until she ignored it and it began to threaten her. She gave it to my friend (a church elder) who tried to burn it in a burning barrel with other garbage. But it would not burn. even when drenched in gasoline.

The entire discussion of the ex-girl friend coming up during the session and being just thrown in there was really the point. He was not thinking of his girlfriend and the entity controlling the board knew something that only Kindred would have known and was not even thinking about. It is really a compelling part of the story. I am not sure about the mother's phone calls but maybe she did not discuss the content with anyone.

My point is that the mention of the ex-girlfriend did not lead absolutely anywhere. Why did the entity bring it up? Did want to warn about something? Did it want to embarrass him or something? I mean, what is the point. The entities that control the boards are never there to waste time and mention random trivial facts just for fun, like when was the last time that I peed on my bed.

So bringing up the ex and not saying absolutely anything else seems unlikely. I really think that whoever told the story did not give all the details.

About Me

Jason Offutt is a syndicated columnist, author, college journalism instructor, and fan of all things strange. His books include the novel, "A Funeral Story," the parody survival book, "How to Kill Monsters Using Common Household Items," the humorous travelogue, "Across a Corn-Swept Land," and four books about the paranormal, "Paranormal Missouri: Show Me Your Monsters," "What Lurks Beyond: The Paranormal In Your Backyard," "Darkness Walks: The Shadow People Among Us," and “Haunted Missouri: A Ghostly Guide to Missouri's Most Spirited Spots.” All are available at www.amazon.com.
Jason is available for interviews, speaking engagements and beer festivals. E-mail all serious inquiries to: sjasonoffutt@gmail.com.